Amazon vs. Apple - great rivalry emerged

The relationship between the companies has previously been amiable. Apple was actually the first company to license Amazon’s divisive 1-click purchasing technology. But that was back in 2000, and in recent months the two companies have increasingly been crossing courses, and swords.

Last month, Apple’s level of in-app iOS subscriptions caused a dispute when it became clear that one of Apple’s rules meant Amazon would no longer be able to link e-book buyers from inside the Kindle iOS app to the Kindle web store. But Amazon hasn't updated the app since then, and the link to the Kindle web store was kept, suggesting a confrontation among companies, or at least some tongue-tied discussions.

Unconnectedly, as Amazon prepared its “Appstore” — not “App Store” – for launching, for Google Android devices, the Seattle based company has been making reverberating about expanding to other mobile platforms, augmenting to speculation that Amazon may be mulling an iOS app store, possibly resulting in even more competitive awkwardness.

As waited, the law case has been in question, where Apple accuses Amazon for violating its App Store trademark rights. Apple alleges that Amazon began luring developers to its mobile software program in the beginning of 2011 by referring to an upcoming App Store of its own. According to reputable sources, Apple’s court filing says that the company contacted Amazon three times regarding the latter company’s use of “App Store,” and that Amazon never “provided a substantive response.”

Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet told Bloomberg that Apple’s fear is that by using the “App Store” name, Amazon’s offering will “confuse and mislead customers.”

The Apple-Amazon squabble comes at a time when Apple’s iOS platform is going nose to nose with Google’s Android mobile operating system in both the smartphone and tablet markets. Apple benefits from the advantage of size with its App Store, offering 350,000 apps at last count, which has helped the company, sell more than 100 million iPhones in the last three-and-a-half years. Android, on the other hand, is now the best-selling operating system for smartphones, according to assorted market research reports.